Flaming Nora

My novel, Triple Whammy , has now been published on Amazon for Kindle. It's a story of love, friendship and a psychic cat. But don't let that put you off. Please buy it - here. It's been at the back of my knicker drawer too long.

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie , Eileen was chuffed to bits.

I'm cycling 20 miles on Sunday 2 June in the Sunderland Big Bike Ride . Last year I did 14 miles for fun , this year I'm doing it for fun and funds - raising charity cash for Cancer Research UK .  If you'd like to sponsor me, please do. My Justgiving sponsor page is here. THANK YOU

Today I have indulged myself listening to my two favourite musical soundtracks on CD.  These are, and I certainly couldn't pick a favourite from the two... so in aphabetical order - Half a Sixpence and The Sound of Music. The reason I love both of them and hold them dear to my heart is that they remind me of grandma. She took me to the ABC in Sunderland when I was a kid to see both films. And if memory serves me right, we went to see both films, just she and I, more than once. Perhaps even, more than twice.  And while singing along to the soundtracks from my favourite musicals, and thinking of grandma, I also remembered she always used to have a packet of polo mints in her handbag. Everywhere we went together, the polo mints were there. And now, I've usually got a packet of polos in my handbag too.

I’m a big fan of Pedro Almodóvar films. Since being blown away by Volver at the flicks a few years ago I’ve gone through this director’s back catalogue, now own all his films on DVD box-sets, and have watched most of his films more than once. Since Volver , I’ve seen all his new films at the flicks and last night I was one of around 4,000 fans in independent cinemas up and down the country to watch his new film, I’m So Excited, in advance of its official UK release on Friday 3 May. It’s good, it’s camp, it’s funny and in parts it’s rude. I’d see it again, and recommend it highly. But it doesn’t make it into my Almodóvar Top 5 because, perhaps it’s too camp and too funny, if that makes any sense? There’s the wonderful Almodóvar use of colour, of cartoonish-reality that you find in his other films and in this one there are air stewards miming along to a Pointer Sisters song. It’s a film that could easily be transferred to the stage, the set of the aeroplane int...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie , Stinker arrived.

To the theatre three times in the last two weeks, so a blog post is due in case you think I've not been out. First off to the Sunderland Empire to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert, again. Regular readers (hello!) will know I've already seen this musical once before, in London . It was so good that when it went on tour and came to my local theatre, there was no choice but to see it again. It was just as good, just as fun as the first time and I loved it all over again.  In the ladies' loo at half-time, I had a giggle at a poster for an upcoming theatre turn - Psychic Sally.  Someone had lipsticked Sally's eyes red and changed the word Psychic to Psycho. Fab. Theatre visit number two was to the wonderful Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough to see Steve Huison in John Godber's Losing the Plot. This was a two-hander play of Steve Huison (he played Eddie Windass in Coronation Street) and Susan Cookson who looked very familiar from TV. A quick Google show...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie , Sunita was given a shoddy send off.

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie , as with every week in Corrie since she first appeared, Michelle Collins as Stella Price really gets on my nut. Get rid of her Corrie, please.

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie, Tyrone was freed.